It's Really Blowin' Out There, Laddie...

And that fact is more than a little evident in the taut mooring lines holding ye ol' "party houseboat" against yonder West Neck point about 1 o'clock today. To get a better look at what I'm talking about, just click on the picture to get a bigger version of it.

Let me explain myself. I used "party houseboat" because of something I observed Wednesday when I was out fishing West Neck Creek. For the last couple of hours, I was within eyeball distance of this ol' boat, where a power boat with a driver and a couple of passengers had tied up alongside and boarded. Later, while I was tidying things up in my boat after recovery, the power boat dropped off its two passengers at the West Neck ramp. And guess what they were carrying. If you said a "bunch of beer," you would win the grand prize.

I mentioned this incident to Steve before leaving the marina and also suggested what a logical next step in this scenario might be as motivation for actively trying to get the houseboat moved on out of the creek for disposal or returning it to a location where activities can be monitored more closely. I also mentioned the possible problems that could be involved if the craft happens to break loose from its current moorings.

I probably should mention, too, that the water was coming in hard today with all that strong wind, as evidenced in this photo of the ramp area. It was anything but surprising that I didn't find a single car in the parking lot. Even if there still are a lot of anglers anxious to shed that cabin fever they've developed, I can't imagine any of them wanting to go out and fight the conditions that were present today.

Yesterday was the day everyone should have hit the water if you wanted ideal conditions. I spent some time with my boat, but as luck would have it, only was changing out the old starting battery, which had demonstrated to my full satisfaction Wednesday that it was getting ready to give up the ghost. Now I just have to decide if I also should change my trolling batteries. Decisions, decisions, decisions...